Hello,
I have three male bettas, each in their own tank. I am wanting to get a female (not to breed, just to keep) and I was wondering what the major differences in behavoir, tankmates, ect. are between keeping males and keeping females. If you keep both, or if you've kept females before please let me know what you know.

There is not a whole lot of difference in keeping males and females. The females are much the same temprament as males in that they can be just as aggressive and just as territorial. Some will be laid back and others will be very aggressive.

That being said, you can keep female bettas together if the tank is big enough for each to have a 'space' to call their own and the fishonality of the betta allows it. Never keep less than 3 together, though, and always an odd number. Just be sure you have alternative housing in case it doesn't work out. I have kept as many as 5 girls in a 30 gallon community tank with no problems.

all bettas have there own personality, i have a very mean, chases everything in the 10G. then i have two nice ones that went good with eachother with no problems (she died because the mean one chewed her fins, and the stress finaly got to her) i say it just depends on the bettas, some mean, some nice.

and i dont know if fin nippers would go after the females, maybe if there colorful they would.

I do like females but as Sprite42 points out they do need to be able to claim their own space. I take care to arrange things so they can claim some space and not have to look at the others. My 3 are getting along very well, one is dominant, she gives another a dirty look and it's over. No nipping.

But the last time I tried a trio of females they were not the exact same age, not sisters and it did not go well.

As much as I love the glorious colors and finnage on the males, they don't look at all natural. The girls can get nice color but it is never to the point that you can imagine them in a natural setting. And they do have the same level of personality and intelligence as the guys.

One really neat thing about the females is you can tell a lot about how they feel by the changing patterns of bars on their sides.

I've noticed the bars on some of them at the pet stores. I'm not really thinking about getting more than one female to put in a tank. Can they live happily in a 5g tank like the males can, or do they need more room? If I do happen to move my males over to a seperated tank and I give her 1/3 of the tank will there be any problems when mating season comes if she has her own part of the tank? (The seperators do have holes for water flow).

Anything else would be helpful as well, this is all I could think of at the moment.

If anyone knows how to read the 'bars' that Violet mentioned please share!

I would not keep a female in a divided tank with a male. They would get the idea that spawning was in the future and longterm I think it would be rather stressful!. Care/size tank/temp is all the same for Ms & Fs.

Horizontal bars are stress, fear, a negative thing. Vertical bars show excitement, dominance, mating. Especially if you have only one you can really get to know a lot about the fish by observing the bars.

I had a girl who HATED her waterchanges. She got pale with dark bars. To cheer her up I would then give her treats and in a mnute or two she would get dark with dark vertical bars. Looked completely different. She was cool.

i just reintroduced my female betta to the other tankmates today.
she is being quite good with not chasing the other female, but she hates my platy in there...lol
always a little chase now and then, no harm done the female just chases the platy in the small confines of the 10G, kinda like tag.

i just put her in again today so i am gonna see what she does.
i have done this 2 times B4 and everytime she was bing a little puke.
yesterday i added my two cherry barbs to the tank, so i think that the extra fish may have done something

Thanks for all of the tips. I will probably get a female after I get my 5g to properly cycle again. (I broke it down). I have seen the ones with the horizontal bars at the pet shop but I thought it was just a pattern, didn't realize it was anything that changed. Sounds neat. I guess having a female will be a neat expieriance.